OAF News

Ontario Arts Foundation Celebrates its 25th Anniversary

Toronto – July 13, 2016 - The Ontario Arts Foundation announced this week it is making a special distribution of $250,000 to arts organizations holding an endowment under the Arts Endowment Fund Program at the Ontario Arts Foundation.

The Ontario Arts Foundation Board ChairAnthony Graham said, “We are delighted to mark our 25th anniversary in 2016 in this way and to provide meaningful recognition of our past and future partnerships with arts organizations in communities across the Province of Ontario.”

The Ontario Arts Foundation was established in 1991 with a mandate to work with arts patrons in building long-term financial support for the arts in Ontario. We currently manage over $73 million in endowment funds on behalf of arts organizations in 65 communities in the Province and more than 30 private donor-funded arts awards and scholarships recognizing the talents and achievements of Ontario artists.

Robust partnerships with the Province of Ontario (Arts Endowment Fund) and Canadian Heritage (Canada Cultural Investment Fund – Endowment Incentives Component) matching programs has fuelled much of the Foundation’s growth. The combination of private sector donations to endowments for arts organizations and government matching funds has been a powerful stimulus to growing financial support for the arts.

The Foundation distributed $3.0 million this year in endowment income, and the matching program has distributed $28 million since the program’s inception. This is the result of the Foundation’s strong, long-term investment performance and is a stable, recurring source of unrestricted revenue, which arts organizations use to support their programming, operations and community outreach activity.

Alan Walker, Executive Director said, “We are privileged to support over 275 arts organizations through these endowments and look forward to building on existing and future partnerships within the arts community for the next 25 years”.